Darelle Revis and Kyle Arrington weren't the only ones who recognized how long Friday's preseason game with the Eagles took to complete. Even quarterback Tom Brady, who gave way to Jimmy Garoppolo in the first quarter, noticed that the number of penalties called in the game forced forced it to slog

Brady spoke to WEEI's Dennis and Callahan Show on Monday morning to discuss how the Patriots handle it when the yellow hankies fly the way they did against Philadelphia -- there were 29 penalties called and 21 enforced.

"Some refs throw a lot of flags," Brady said. "Some refs don't throw a lot of flags. Our coaches try to prepare us for that. Then once you get out there on the field, you play within the rules to the best of your ability, and if they're calling it tight you've gotta be able to adjust. It's all part of the decision-making process as a player. Hopefully there's not 20-plus flags a game because that's a lot of flags. That'll make for long football games."

Brady remembered when 10 years ago the league put a renewed emphasis on defensive holding and illegal contact in the secondary. It was after the Patriots had won the Super Bowl following the 2003 season thanks in part to the physical play of their defensive backs.

In the 2004 season, the number of illegal contact penalties went up to 191 from 79 the year before. Brady said he wasn't sure if there would be that kind of jump this year.

"They made a point of emphasis this year that they're gonna call more illegal contacts, more defensive holdings, and this preseason they've done that," Brady said. "But how it goes in the regular season, no one really knows at this point. As an offense we can't really think about it. We just gotta go out, run our routes, do our job. If they call it, they call it. If they don't, we gotta do business as business is being done."

Phil Perry serves as a general reporter for Comcast SportsNet, mainly covering the New England Patriots. Follow Phil on Twitter here.